Alumnus Ken Lloyd of Duxbury, Massachusetts has established the Kenneth A. Lloyd Fellowship, which will award more than $25,000 per year to a qualified incoming doctoral student in the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (MIE) Department. Mr. Lloyd graduated from the College of Engineering in 1973, having majored in mechanical engineering. He is currently the vice president and general manager of Electro Switch Corporation in Weymouth, Massachusetts. A longtime supporter of the College of Engineering, Mr. Lloyd has a history of generosity to UMass Amherst, having made previous gifts to create the Kenneth A. Lloyd Scholarship Endowment and the Kenneth A. Lloyd Engineering Scholarship Endowment.

“Graduate education is what contributes to the advances in knowledge that are needed to make renewable energy a reality, to create a healthcare system that is affordable, and to bring manufacturing back to the United States,” explains Professor Donald Fisher, head of the MIE department. “The quality of life, not only here in this country but around the world, depends on our growing our intellectual capital. The Kenneth A. Lloyd Fellowship is an ambitious, extraordinarily generous, and absolutely necessary part of that growth.”

Mr. Lloyd has committed to a $137,500 pledge, payable over a period of five years, to support the new MIE fellowship. Primary preference will be given to a female student.

“Women are still greatly underrepresented in engineering,” says Professor Fisher. “Only by increasing the number of women going to graduate school can we hope to change the face of graduate education and attract larger numbers of individuals, men and women, into engineering.”

“I have long been an advocate of women in professional engineering and elsewhere,” explains Mr. Lloyd. “As part of a predominantly male engineering industry, therefore, I have always encouraged upward mobility in women engineers and elevated them throughout their professional careers.”

The fellowship recipient will be selected by the head of the MIE department in consultation with a faculty committee via a competitive process. The selected student must be a U.S. citizen and will be required to work on a specific research project under the advisement of a current faculty member. The scope and nature of the project will be determined at the departmental faculty level.

Electro Switch engages in the design and manufacture of rotary and miniature switches, solenoids, and encoders for the power industry in the United States, Canada, and internationally. It offers instrument and control switches, and lock-out relays; remotely operated devices, including control and latching switch, selector switch and tagging, and protective relays, as well as control indicator modules; and detent and snap action rotary switches, cam-action rotary switches, tap and knife switches, and accessories. (May 2012)